The grass and wild flowers are beginning to grow and the animals grazed through the undergrowth beneath the cork oak trees.

Here are a few photographs.

It costs us £25 per month to look after Domingo.
Adopt Domingo for a month … only £25.

We’ll e-mail you a special set of photos taken of him during that month.

It costs us £25 per month to look after Chico.
Adopt Chico for a month … only £25.

We’ll e-mail you a special set of photos taken of him during that month.

So far in 2011 Domingo was adopted once. Thank you.
Chico has never been adopted.

The donkeys are all well.
The rain has washed and fluffed up their winter-coats which are coming through. They all look to be in fantastic condition.

The dark stormy conditions weren’t ideal for photography. I’ll take some next time the sun decides to shine in Andalucía.

We’ll soon see sweet chestnuts and acorns falling. They do eat some of these.
We need regular rainfall to start soon so that they can eat some succulent green shoots.

Gifts received towards their upkeep were £0 / $0 / €0 in September.
Disappointing but it was the site’s first month.

We are going to launch a major appeal for  £500 / $750 / €600 this month.
We need our two males castrating so Rosie our female can join them running free. She’s currently in a small paddock behind our house owned by our kind neighbours. She can’t stay there much longer, it isn’t ideal. However it is better than her getting pregnant.

The males must be castrated before the flies reappear in spring.
January/ early February is ideal.

If you can help us, this would really improve their lives.

Thanks

I’ve just designed a small website and can start the fund off with  £50 / $75 / €60

Donkey Castration – Urgent Appeal

He has fathered one son, Chico with our female donkey Rosie.

It costs us £25 per month to look after Domingo.
Adopt Domingo for a month … only £25.

We’ll e-mail you a special set of photos taken of him during that month.

Your gift would really help Domingo and allow us to buy items which the animals urgently need.

Lily Lamb and our friend’s sheep Dolly, live together on a mountainside with the donkeys.

The sheep were sheared recently. It must have been such a relief for them to lose their fleeces during the hot summer.
I do have photos of our friend Antonio shearing them the old-fashioned way, using a pair of very sharp scissors. I’ll do a sheep shearing article soon.

Can you help us?

Adopt Lily Lamb for a month … only £10 – $15 – €12.

We will e-mail you a special set of photos taken of her during that month.

Your gift would help Lily and free money for us to spend on items which the animals urgently need.

We went out picking Carobs.
Carobs are found on an amazing drought tolerant tree. A member of the pea family it produces long leathery pods.
They are edible, tough with a sweet taste. They are used to make a fake chocolate.
If you were starving they’d be wonderful as they store well. Otherwise it’s hard work eating one of them.

The donkeys love them.
We collected a sackful and will use them as treats over the winter.
We’ll try to get more but it’s hard and hot work knocking them out of the trees.

Here are some photos of carobs, picking them and then the donkeys eating them.
Sorry the pics are smaller than usual, the uploader was playing up.

We were so worried about Chico we’ve managed to save up to buy him a worming treatment.

Here are some photographs …

How to worm a donkey. 

I scooped it out with the lid of the water container.

It sat catching its breath before sitting on my hand.

After it had dried out and warmed through, I put it on the ground and it scurried off and quickly disappeared. No vet’s bills or re-homing necessary.

It was very beautifully marked as you’ll see in the photos.

There are no signs of infections and she has a very healthy appetite.

Occasionally she holds her paw in the air  but she can walk on it.
I examined her leg and paw and she’s not in any pain, but the bones in the wrist area don’t feel right. This is possibly an old injury. We’ll get the vet to look at it when we save up enough money for her inoculations.

Tiggy will cost us £175 in veterinary bills over the next six months.
£75 for two sets of inoculations including anti-rabies serum. Plus a mandatory micro-chip.
Then in around six months a further  £100 for neutering.

I’ve added an Adopt Tiggy option in our “Gift Shop” @ £25.
If we can find seven people willing to adopt her for a month this will pay for her veterinary bills.

We’ll send a special set of photos to you taken during the month you adopt Tiggy.

Sorry to have to ask for your help but the bills for caring for the animals are very high and our reserves are currently zero.

She’s about six weeks old, skin and bone, typical of a kitten from a feral litter.

She doesn’t have any visible infections which is good news for Tiggy in her condition.

She has a very healthy appetite. Jane bought some pouches of specially formulated kitten food with added vitamins and minerals. Tiggy loves them!

She’s stopped hissing and spitting at us, and now doesn’t run and hide when we come in the room. She’s making herself at home and purrs very loudly. It doesn’t take long to tame feral kittens, patience, food and gentle strokes.

Chances of finding her a home are about zero. Not many Spanish people like animals in the house especially cats.

We are happy to give Tiggy a home. We already have six rescued cats, including two amputees, victims of traps.

Tiggy will cost us £175 in veterinary bills over the next six months.
£75 for two sets of inoculations including anti-rabies serum. Plus a mandatory micro-chip.
Then in around six months a further  £100 for neutering.

I’ve added an Adopt Tiggy option in our “Gift Shop” @ £25.
If we can find seven people willing to adopt her for a month this will pay for her veterinary bills.

We’ll send a special set of photos to you taken during the month you adopt Tiggy.

Sorry to have to ask for your help but the bills for caring for the animals are very high and our reserves are currently zero.

On a brighter note I managed to take some photos of Tiggy just as she woke up.
She wouldn’t pose yesterday.

We’ll take more photos and update the site on her progress.